Man accused of raping estranged wife freed

A man accused of detaining and repeatedly raping his estranged wife after their divorce, has been acquitted by a Delhi court which said that the woman’s statement was not “reliable and trustworthy”.

The special fast track court freed Delhi resident Rupesh Kumar who was arrested on a complaint by his estranged wife alleging that he had obtained divorce by “playing fraud” on her and repeatedly raped her by keeping her at his house.

“It is held that the prosecution has failed to prove its case against accused Rupesh Kumar beyond any reasonable suspicion or shadow of doubt that the accused detained his wife after taking divorce from her and thereafter, continued to have sexual intercourse with her and thereby committed repeated rape on her or he threatened her not to disclose the fact of rape to anybody else least he would kill her younger brother,” additional sessions judge (ASJ) T R Naval said.

According to police, the woman had married Kumar in February 2004 and after about a year, a girl child was born but the infant died six days later following which behaviour of her in-laws changed and Kumar started beating her and got divorce by “playing fraud on her”.
The police alleged that despite getting divorce, Kumar kept the woman in his house, raped her and threatened to kill her and her brother in case she disclosed the incident of divorce to anyone.

In June 2007, the woman became seriously ill and went to her parents’ house to disclose everything to her brother and mother after which a case was lodged and Kumar was arrested.

Kumar had told the court that the woman had filed a false case against him as she wanted to extort Rs 5 lakh from him